My Reason for Existance
by SuiGaa
Summary: Naruto was always alone. He had no one who understood him, or even cared that he existed at all. That is, until Emiko showed up. Now, he has a reason for existence, and a person who he needs to protect. And in a way, the same thing can be said for her. Single Oc Warning. Not Mary-Sue.
1. Prologue

**SuiGaa: This is my first story. I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. The only thing I do own is Emiko.  
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I stumbled through the forest on tiny, chubby feet. My steps were unsure and wobbly, having recently mastered the ability to walk without assistance. Twigs dug painfully into the soles of my feet and tree branches cut painfully at my exposed arms. But still, I trudged on, tripping and slipping and yet still enduring all the same.

_Just give up, _a deep, bitter voice growled in my head. _You'll never survive. There's no use trying if you're just going to die in the end. This is an endless cycle of hate; no one can ever escape it. Even if you do live on, you will never be loved. You're life is worthless, so just give up. _

I shuddered as the voice intruded my mind, the cold tremors cutting deep into my resolve and melting away everything that I thought I knew. I shivered at the sudden absence of warmth that it caused and hugged myself tightly. It made me feel small, alone, vulnerable, and worst of all, unloved. I tried to convince myself that I was, that Papa loved me more than anything else in the world, but...I wasn't so sure anymore. The voice was making me second quess myself.

_That's right. Succumb to the hopelessness. Feel how little power you truly have. You can never win in this cruel world, so just give up. Lay down and die...Drift into the despair and meet your own demise swiftly. Death is easier than life, you'll see..._

Light erupted behind me, large plumes of red energy snaking high above the treetops. I froze as the columns of bubbling crimson rose higher and curled even closer to my current position. Waves of killing intent rolled toward me, carried by the strong night air. My limbs locked up automatically and my heart rammed against my chest frantically. I was scared, no terrified.

_Terror. My favorite feeling ever. Doesn't it make you feel so _alive?

My legs gave out from under me, and I sunk to the ground. Trepidation shook my body and thoughts laced with panic raced through my mind.

What is this feeling? Hate? Spite? Anger? ...And yet...Sadness? What...what could possibly generate such strong feelings.

I saw movement in my periphrials and my eyes shifted over. There, something large rose above the treetops, gathering itself up to its full, terrifying height. It was a mass of white with four long, knobby horse-like legs supporting it. Five yellow tipped horns extended from the back of its head and behind it five long, billowing tails waved menacingly.

Inside of me, something clenched. It felt exactly like when my heart ached, but different. It was almost as if my heart was breaking, only it wasn't _my _heart. Somehow though, the feeling tingled through my body and melted into my own heart. It clenched, and I couldn't stop myself from wondering what exactly had caused this feeling. I wanted it to stop, to end this feeling that was bubbling up inside of me. It hurt like hell, not physically but emotionally, and I didn't think that anyone deserved to feel this way.

The bitter voice sounded again, but this time it was much weaker and...sad.

_Those bastards...how dare they...how dare they..._

My heart clenched further at the solemn words, and I just couldn't help myself. The voice may have been mean to me, and said so many bad things, but did it really deserve to feel this way.

It's okay, I told it. You're going to be okay. I won't let them hurt you, I swear.

_Shut up. There's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do. This world is too cruel to live in, you need to realize that now, you little brat. No one can understand how I feel, and there's no way that some little baka like you could change anything._

I was ready to say something back, to defend myself, but before I could say a word, arms looped around my midsection. They pulled me up and into the safety of someone's arms.

"Subject found," a clipped voice said from behind me, before being followed by the buzzing static of a radio.

"Understood," a deep voice rumbled from the other side of the radio connection. The arms lifted me up and carried me away from the collection of red energy. That also meant that I was being carried away from something else: Papa.

"No!" I screamed, kicking at the unknown person's arms. "Papa's back there! He's in danger! You have to help him! You have to get him away from the scary monster!"

The voice inside of my head snorted.

_Scary monster? I should have figured. You humans are all the same..._

The arms around me tightened and I was barely able to turn around. A white mask stared back at me, styled to look like a mouse and having blue markings carved into the design. The Iwagakure symbol was carved into the forehead of the mask. The figure didn't say anything but they simply continued to carry me away, jumping through the trees at a fast pace, away from the scary monster, and away from Papa.

"No!" I cried, tears pooling in my eyes. "Papa! Papa!"

Something hard hit me in the back of the head and I slumped. Blackness seeped into my vision, and then there was nothing...

I blinked my eyes open, and grey filled my vision. Above me loomed a low ceiling, cracked and scattered with dots of moss.

I turned over in my bed, wincing when my head throbbed painfully. I peered around and realized that I was in a cave. A rather dark and damp cave to be exact. Everything was black and then-a dash of red. My eyes halted on the familar color and I shot up in bed.

"Papa!" I cried out and rocketed toward the familar man, dressed in his common fighting armor, which was a rich red. My arms linked into the folds of his battle armor, seeing as I couldn't fit my small arms all the way around his large form. "I thought you were gone. What happened Papa? What was that big scary monster doing? It appeared just after you sent me away. What's going on?"

He brought me back to the ground and knelt before me, still managing to hover high above me on his knees though; Papa was a very large man. I often felt incredibly small around him. He looked into my eyes, large orange orbs staring deeply into my own.

"Sweetheart, do you remember all of those times that we took that red stuff out of you?" he questioned me quietly.

I nodded vigorously.

"You...you called it chakra...Bijuu chakra," I remembered, before scrunching my face up in confusion. "What does that mean Papa?"

"Nothing you need to know, Sweetheart," he told me. "Some really bad people tried to take all of the bijuu chakra I collected though, and Papa just had to get it back, okay?"

I nodded again.

"But what was that scary monster doing?" I asked quietly.

"That's just what the bijuu chakra does when there's a lot of it, Sweetheart. It can form some really scary monsters sometimes," he told me.

"Okay, Papa," I said, and yawned. "Do we get to go home now, Papa?"

I rubbed my eyes tiredly and he gave me a sad look. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, or even feeling, because his armor also covered most of his face. The only thing you could actually see of his face were his eyes, but they looked sad now.

"Actually, Sweetheart, it's gonna be awhile until we can go home. It's not safe here for you, Baby, so you're going to have to go away for awhile while Papa makes it safe again."

My eyes shot open.

"No, Papa, I don' wanna go! I wanna stay with you!" I protested, slinging my arms around his neck in a hug. My chubby arms didn't fit all the way around his neck, but that didn't stop me from trying. "Please don' make me go, Papa, please! I'll be good, I swear!"

His arms snaked around my back, and when he spoke, I could clearly hear the emotion in his voice.

"I know you will, Baby, I know, but you have to. Papa doesn't like it either, but you have to."

And we stood there, hugging and crying-me openly and him secretly-as we said our farewells. I didn't argue with Papa, even though I did beg to stay with him, because I knew that if Papa thought something wasn't safe, then he was right. Papa was a strong man, and if he felt as if that he couldn't protect me, then it was serious. That night, I left on a covered wagon heading south toward an unknown location. Where I ended up would be decided by fate, and as fate would have it I ended up in the Fire Country and more specifically the first established elemental village.

_Konoha. The Village Hidden In The Leaves. _


	2. Chapter 1

The leaf village was an extremely odd place. Or at least it seemed that way when compared to Iwagakure. The rock village's design was practical, with sturdy houses carved out of stone, wood, and whatever other resources that could be found, while Konoha was well...the houses were all different colors, ranging from sharp lime green to soft periwinkle, and built in an array of ways. Some stretched up several stories-the poorly constructed ones waving dangerously in the air whenever the wind blew-while others hugged the ground so closely that they were almost non-existant. Homes were crammed between shops and resturants and apartments zigzagged through the interior of the village. It was all so compact and complex that it made my head hurt, and made it almost impossible to mannuever through. I wasn't about to lie and say that I hadn't lost my way a few times.

In fact, I was in a similar predicament at the moment.

I stood warily in the streets, letting the many villages slide right past me without so much as a second glance. The way they were so unfazed by my presence irked me a little. How come seeing a little kid all alone in the middle of a street didn't make them worry? Didn't they suspect that I was lost? Didn't they wonder where my paretns were? Didn't they care at all? Everytime I had gotten lost in Iwa, one of Papa's ninja buddies would find me in a few minutes and take me back to him or watch over me until he got back. There, people knew me, people _cared_, but here?

A man shoved past me brutally, knocking me over. I yelped lightly in pain as I scraped my knees and hands, but he didn't turn around. He didn't say sorry. He just kept walking.

That was when I realized that I was all alone. No one knew who I was here. No one cared about me. If I died, no one would notice. Papa was gone, and he was never coming back. I didn't care if I was supposedly safer here. If this is what it took to be completely confident in my safety, then I would rather be in danger, I would rather be with Papa.

At that time I was sure of one thing: I hated Konoha, and everyone in it.

Until I met _him. _

I glared at the man's retreating back as I brushed myself off. My knees were cut and bleeding and my palms were scraped to no return. They stung more than anything else, and little bits of dirt and rock were pressing into my skin. I brushed the little bits off and staggered a few steps down the road. My steps were sloppy and unsure, causing me to be unbalanced. I never was very coordinated, which caused me to start walking at a later age than most kids. I'd started speaking much sooner than the average person, but my balance was so horrendous that it all evened out in the grand scheme of things. I was so painfully average at this point in life that it hurt.

Just as I was about to walk by a shop, something tumbled out of it. A few feet away from me, a little boy rolled to a stop in a heap. He grumbled a bit and stumbled back to his feet with a huff, bright blond hair in various states of disarray, just as the shopkeeper came barreling after him.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" the shopkeeper bellowed, face red in anger. "Don't come into my shop!"

He threw something at the boy and hit him smack-dab between the eyes, bouncing off the blondes head and rolling away. It came to a stop near my foot and I saw what it was. A rock.

Something inside of me shifted and I felt anger rise inside of me. It was one thing for the people of this village to not care about me. I was an outsider, someone who had randomly shown up. They didn't know me. They weren't expected to welcome a stranger with open arms. But this boy? He was one of them. One of their own. Someone that they should have loved, should have cared for, should have not thrown rocks at. He was just a boy. He didn't deserve this.

My hands acted as if they had a mind of their own, and before I even knew what I was doing I had picked up the rock and threw it at the shopkeeper. It bounced harmlessly off his rather rotund chest. Both the little boy's and the shopkeeper's head snapped toward me.

_It's too late to turn back now, _a small voice in the back of my head reasoned. _You might as well dive head-first and see what happens. You're not scared, are you?_

The little challenge presented by the voice had me standing a little taller, puffing my chest out further, and looking at the burly shop owner in the eye with more confidence than I've ever shown in my entire life. I didn't know why, but I just wanted to prove that voice wrong.

_And save that boy from getting hurt?_

Exactly, that too.

"Leave him alone," I said, trying to sound firm as firm as possible. A slight tremor coursed through my voice, but I still sounded stronger than I usually did.

The shopkeeper gave me a once-over, trying to size me up. It didn't take long, seeing as I wasn't even three feet tall. The man actually laughed at me.

"Oh yeah, and what will you do if I don't?" he asked, challenging.

I froze in my spot for a second, wondering what I should say. I didn't know what to do in this situation. What could I possibly say to make this man back off? A thought, a simple, stupid, thought popped into my head, and I grabbed ahold of it tight, simply beause I had nothing else to rely on.

I gathered up all the courage I had and raised my tiny, balled fist. A determined look ghosted over my features.

"If you haven't noticed, my fist is at crotch-level," I told him. "So if you plan on having kids later on in life, I suggest you back off."

The shopkeeper glanced toward my fist and gulped a little bit. His eyes then flickered toward the little blonde boy, as if trying to decide if he was worth all of this trouble. Apparently, he wasn't, and the shopkeeper shuffled back into his shop with nothing more than a wave of his hand and a grumbled, "I'm going back because I want to, not because you told me to."

I made my way over to the boy.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. I glanced up at the growing angry red dot between his eyes that had been left behind by the rock. I could already tell that it was going to from a bruise.

He glanced up at me with his large, sparkling cruelen eyes. He looked so innocent and small, mostly because he was. I was surprised to find that he was even shorter than me, which was no small feat.

"I...I...Yeah, I'm fine," he mumbled under his breath, immeadiately tearing his eyes away from mine. "Thanks."

I blinked, surprised that he was actually thanking me. I hadn't expected that from someone who lived here, surrounded by all of these horrible people.

"'Welcome," I whispered back lightly. My confidence was slowly fading now as my adrenaline ebbed and I was beginning to feel shy once more.

I shuffled on my feet for a moment, before awkwardly mumbling a small, "Bye."

"Bye," he whispered back, and we parted ways. But even as I walked away from him, I couldn't help but glance back at him. And when I did, I saw that he was looking right back at me over his shoulder. He smiled lightly, a small, hesitant smile, and I found myself smiling back. I waved tentively and he eagerly waved back. I turned back and made my way back to the orphanage where I was staying, a small smile still tugging up the corner of my mouth.

Maybe Konoha isn't that bad afterall.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters except for my OC, Izumi. **

**I hope you enjoy Chapter 2. Thanks for reading. **

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I didn't like the orphanage in the least bit. Just like the rest of the buildings in Konoha, it was scary. Every time someone would run upstairs, the walls would shake and bits of dust would flutter down from the crudely built ceiling. I wisely avoided the second story like the plague and took extreme precautions when I was forced into the dangerous territory. I was afraid to even breath in the building, let alone do anything productive.

It didn't help that all the boys there were rowdy _and _lived on the second story. Every time one of them zipped overhead, it sounded and felt like an earthquake was terrorizing the village. The boys obviously didn't care about the shaky building, and the girls didn't seem to notice that it wasn't built properly. They all just stayed tightly packed in groups of three to four, playing with dolls and fixing each others hair. A few of them had asked me to join them the first couple of days I was here, but I had politely declined all of their offers. It wasn't that I disliked them; I just wasn't interested in any of the same things that they were.

I'd grown up with only a father. A father who just so happened to be a ninja, at that. I'd never really been exposed to girly things that much in my childhood, but I didn't mind. I liked the things that Papa and I did together. He had never pressured me into being a ninja-actually, he had tried to talk me out of doing the dangerous job several times-but it just seemed natural. I wanted to be a ninja. I wanted to be able to protect myself. I wanted to be able to protect Papa.

None of the other girls in the orphanage wanted to be ninjas. They all thought it was a man's job to protect and serve, which I understood. Ninja work was a field dominated by men and for a good reason. They were naturally stronger and their instinct was to protect. If I was given a choice of having a male or female to protect me, I would most certainly pick the male; I'm pretty sure that most of the world would too. And just to prove my point even further, there were several guys in the orphanage who were set on becoming shinobi. Sometimes I would watch them play ninja out the window, seeing how well they held their makeshift paper shurikens and how accurate their throws were. I contemplated joining them a few times, but decided against it. Most of them were mean according to the other girls in the orphanage, because they would often pull their hair and call them by mean nicknames.

_Pulling their hair and calling them rude nicknames? How has someone not called the police on these horrible people yet?_

The voice in the back of my head was ever-present. If it wasn't growling rude comments or sarcastically griping about every little thing, it was eerily quiet. Somehow the latter was worse than the former. Whenever the voice seemed reserved it felt like it was plotting. What I wasn't sure, but I had an uncanny feeling that it had something to do with the demise of the world. And that made me suspicious. It would be easy to write of the voice as some kind of schizophrenic hallucination or even an unfriendly imaginary friend, but the second it began to actually develop truly human characteristics things became tricky. It was harder to explain it as a childish fantasy if it was something that I would want to stay far, far away from my dreams. I was starting to get a bad feeling that maybe the voice was something much more than I had initially thought. It simply oozed an eerie aura and no matter how nice I tried to be to it the voice just seemed to get meaner and meaner. But as much as it made me feel small and insignificant, it also made me feel like maybe, just maybe I was important. As much as it complained about being stuck inside of me, it still continued to constantly talk to me. If it would waste so much of its time speaking to me, then I couldn't have been too bad, right? Most of the things it said really made me question that however.

_You want to become a ninja? _It asked me one day when I was signing up for the Academy. _You do realize that you're a female, don't you? Little girls aren't meant to be ninjas. Maybe you should just stick to cooking and cleaning like the rest of the female population. You'll live longer and it'll be way easier. I mean, have you seen your chakra control? It's horrible!_

That means a lot to me, I thought dryly.

_I'm so glad I could help._

You know, you don't have to be so sarcastic all the time, you-

"Hey, girlie, what are you doing here?" A familiar voice prompted from behind me. I knew I'd heard it before, but I couldn't remember where. I spun on my heel and instantly knew why. In front of me, three of the boys from the orphanage were standing shoulder-to-shoulder. The one in the middle was standing a little in front of the other two. It was obvious that he was the "leader" of their group by the way he puffed his chest out and crossed his arms over his chest smugly. In my opinion, it only made him look stupid.

"I'm here to join the Academy," I said proudly.

The boy scoffed and the other two behind him boomed in laughter.

"But you're a girl!" he exclaimed during bursts of laughter. "Girls can't be ninjas."

I pinned him with a scowl and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Lots of strong ninjas have been females," I said.

He leaned into my personal space, trying to intimidate me.

"Oh, yeah? Prove it," he challenged.

"Mito Uzumaki helped develop medical ninjutsu; without her, millions of people would have died. Tsunade, one of the great sannin, is one of the strongest medical ninjas ever and-"

"Those aren't ninjas!" he barked. "Medical ninjutsu was made for sissies, for little girlies like you. Real ninjas are the ones who are tough. They can punch a mountain in half-" He punched straight forward, as if he was actually punching a mountain in half. "-and kill someone with one finger!" He held up one finger as if I couldn't count that high.

"For one, Tsunade could punch a mountain in half if she wanted to and two, she could definitely kill someone with one finger."

"No she couldn't! Women aren't strong, and that's why they shouldn't be ninjas! _You _shouldn't be a ninja!"

He went to push me down, but before he could a rock flew out of nowhere and hit him 'where the sun don't shine' as Jui, one of the girls at the orphanage, would say.

"Leave her alone," a small voice said from a few feet away. I spun around to find the same blonde boy from a week ago standing in front of me, staring fiercely at the boys in front of me.

The two unharmed boys looked between the blonde boy and me a few times before deciding it wasn't worth it. They helped their leader wobble away. I turned back to the boy, blushing lightly.

"Thank you for helping me," I said quietly, fidgeting with the hem of my shirt.

"You did the same for me," he whispered. "Er...I gotta go."

He started to shuffle away, but I stopped him.

"Hey, where are you going?" I asked. "You're obviously here to become a ninja, aren't you? So why don't you just wait with me? You'd have to wait at the end of the line if you didn't."

"Why do you care?" he whispered so quietly that I could barely hear him.

"What?"

His balled fists clenched tightly and he looked up through his long eyelashes. Two sparkling blue eyes stared back at me. The sadness in those beautiful orbs was almost too much for me to bear. My heart ached and I couldn't help but wonder what could make such a small, young boy so sad. Kids shouldn't have to bear anything big enough to actually leave them wounded.

"No one has ever cared enough to spend time with me. No one's even stopped other people from picking on me. So why do you care?"

"Why...Why do I care?" I asked a bit stunned. What kind of question was that? "Because you're a person. Because you have feelings. You don't deserve to be treated like that! No one does!"

His head shot up, his eyes as wide as saucers.

"You...you actually care?" he said, the sad look in his eyes melting slightly. The deep sorrow reminded me of something all too familiar. The look in this little boys eyes was parallel to the sound of the voice inside of my head. They were both undeniably sad and filled with agony. No one should have to feel something like that. No one. I'd already promised the voice that I wouldn't let it wallow in its own misery, and I had meant it. I wouldn't let this little boy do that either. He was just a child. He didn't deserve this.

Giant tears began to gather at the edges of his eyes and before I knew what was happening he crushed himself to me. He mumbled something against me, but I couldn't understand him.

"What?" I asked.

He lifted his head up to say, "I'm Naruto."

"Oh," I said, smiling lightly. "I'm Izumi."

I stayed there, letting him cry against me as we waited to sign up for the Academy, glaring at anyone who sent Naruto a weird look and contemplating what would happen next. I could just feel it in my bones that this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Sure, I had my hands full with both him and the whiney voice in my head, but I never was one to turn down a challenge. If anything, it was just giving me more reasons to live.

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**I don't really like how this chapter turned out, but I didn't want to wait any longer to post, so here it is. I hope you liked it though. Please review/favorite/follow.**


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